Contact-chamber.



G. ESGHELLMANN & A. HARMUTH.

CONTACT CHAMBER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26, 1909.

1 ,030,508, Patented June 25, 1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTORNE Y8 G. ESOHELLMANN & A. HARMUTH. CONTACT CHAMBER. APPLICATIONFILED NOV. 20, 1909.

1,030,508, Patented June 25,1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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000000 00000 0000000000000 000000 00000 0000000000000 0000000000000000000000000 J 000000000000 06000000000000 000000000000 0000000000000000000000000 0000000000000 000000 0000 0 0000000000000 000000 00 00000000000000 000000 0 000000000000 {000000 0 000000000000 000000 0000000000000 000000 0 00000000000 00000 0000 0 00000000000 000 0000000 Qo o o g fl o o 0 o o 000% 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o o 0 o O O0000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDOO WITNESSES QM WHE 5 0M AIM-0A ATTORNEYS G.ESOHELLMANN 65 A. H-ARMUTH.

CONTACT CHAMBER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26, 1909.

1,030,508. Patented June 25,1912.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

ATTORNEYS s PATENT OFFICE; 7

GEOBG ESCHELLMANN' AND ALBERT HARMUTH, OF ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA,ASSIGN- OBS TO GENERAL CHEMICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ACORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

CONTACT-CHAMBER.

Patented June 25, 19.12.

Application filed November 26, 1909. Serial No. 529,983.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORG ESCHELL- MANN, a subject of the King of GreatBritain, and ALBERT HARMUTH, a subject of the King of Prussia, GermanEmperor, both residing at St. Petersburg, Russian Empire, have inventeda new and useful Improve-- ment in Contact-Chambers, of which thefollowing is a specification, reference being had to the drawings whichare made a part of said specification.

Our invention relates to a contact chamber adapted to contain catalyticmaterial 'as is required in what is now well known as the contactprocess of manufacturing sulfuric anhydrid from sulfurous-acid gas andoxygen (or air).

A further and most important object of our invention is to provide acontact chamber in which all parts are made easy of access forreplacement or repair.

A further object of our invention is to enable such repairs as may benecessary to be confined to the exact portion of the apparatus whichis'at fault without the necessity of materially interfering with or ofdiscarding and replacing adjacent parts not concerned in said fault; tothis end the essential parts of our contact chamber are well subdividedand assembled as a system of units any one of which may be removed andreplaced without affecting the remaining units.

A still further object of our invention is to obtain the maximumefficiency in the conversion of the entering sulfurous" acid gas andoxygen into emerging sulfuric anhydrid. This we accomplish by certainfeatures of mechanical design and of arrangement of the catalyticmaterial with reference to the flow of the aforesaid gases through thechamber and by further providing for a suitable commingling of saidgases as they thus pass through the cham- Still further objects of ourinvention will appear as the specification proceeds;

On the annexed sheets of drawings we have illustrated a preferredembodiment of our invention in which- Figure 1 is a central verticalsection taken along the line 11' of Figs. 2 and 3, the

along the broken line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3

15 a plan view of the upper right hand of Fig. 1, taken along the line3-3 thereof; and Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the pyramidalunits.

Referring to the drawings, which are drawn to scale, our contact chambercomprises an upper cylindrical portion A, preferably of sheet iron,about 13 feet in di' ameter joined by a tapering portion B below to asomewhat longer but smaller diametered cylindrical portion C. At thetop, the cylinder B is provided with a flanged ring a to which may bebolted the flanged ring 6 which borders the end closure of the cylinder,said closure comprising the head D and cover E, which latter may befastened to D by any of the well-known methods used in this class ofconstruction. The bottom of the lower cylinder C is formed into a convexsheet F and is provided with an outlet pipe G.

The mixture of sulfurous acid gas and oxygen is led into the apparatusat the inlet H to which a suitable pipe connection may be attached. Atthe top of the larger cylinder A is a perforated plate comprising anouter ring portion I and an inner one piece disk portion J. The ringportion, for reasons ofconvenience and economy of manufacture as well asfor convenience in assembling in repairs, comprises a number ing anouter ring portion I and an inner segments d,- the outer edges of the csegments are conformed to the flanges a, b, and are clamped permanentlybetween said flanges when the chamber is assembled while other edges areprovided with suitable inverted T flanges e to aid in positioning andsupporting mutually the several segments. The smaller disk J has adiameter a little larger than the inner diameter of ring I and istherebyadapted to rest upon said ring as shown in the figures. Handles f enablethe center disk to be readily lifted from place and a circularperforated plate L and flange g aflixed to ring I maintains said disk inits central position. Beneath the perforated plate system just describedis a truncated funnel K of sheet metal riveted around its top to theupper cylinder A and carrying at its bottom a ring provided with aninternally projecting flange h. This flange it together with a centralstructure 2' constitutes a support for the system upon which rests thelayer of catalytic material which is first met by the incoming gas. Thestructure i comprises upper and lower hoops or rings 71 z" joined byverticals j and rests upon the tapered bottom B. The supporting systemfor this first layer of catalytic material comprises broadly a lowerimmediately over said plate av second perforated system constituted of aplurality of units M. The lower perforated plate L is divided alongradial lines 9'. into a number of ring sections N the exterior of each'section resting upon flange h and the interior upon the upper hoop i theplate is completed by a central perforated disk having attached to itsperiphery a series of lugs is, said lugs .overhanging the disk so as torest upon the fashion to the lowest perforated plate,

aforementioned perforated sections N.

Upon the perforated plate system just described rests a secondperforated system which comprises a plurality of identical units M,which units consist each of a truncated pyramid Z having a closed'topand open below. Each pyramid is at the center of a perforated rectanglem. Each of these rectangles has small supporting legs or distance piecesn attached to its under surface whereby said rectangle may be supportedupon the lower perforated plate, and at a short distance therefrom.Preferably these distance, pieces are formed from the rectangle itselfeither by turning vertically downwardeach corner, or by punching outsome portion of each rectangle and turning the same downward. At thejunction of B and O is placed a plate Ohaving a central perforation 0this plate rests upon the upper outwardly flanged rim of C and isretained laterally by the inner terminal edges of B. In the lowercylindrical portion C is contained a system of 25 identical perforatedplates p (in the drawing the top plate is omitted) the lower one whichrests upon a series of six .verticals g themselvesresting upon theconcave bottomF. These verticals may be joined together sired way so asto form a little table or preferably may be attached in some permanfintt us making a table of said plate. Upon each perforated plate andseparating it from its neighboring plate above is a series ofdistancepieces r. Thesedistance pieces are all at the top in any de-"1,oso,5os

of the same height thus keeping the plates parallel and equi-distant andare preferably placed in line with the lower verticals q.

The catalytic material Q, preferably platinized asbestos, is placed asindicated upon the upper perforated plate system in a thick layer comingnearly to the top of the pyramids Z. Upon the lower perforated platesystem the catalytic material is loosely placed upon each plate beforeits next upper plate is put into position. Generally we prefer thethickness of the top layer to be about 5.1 inches and that of each ofthe thinner layers to be about 1.6 inches. We find that thesethicknesses will require the incoming gas to be supplied at a pluspressure equivalent to about 6 onus. of mercury for the thick layer andabout 10 cms. of mercury for the 25 thinner layers 4. 6., a totalpressure equivalent to about 16 cms. of mercury'will be required. Thecontactchamber being set up and filled with catalytic material as shown,suppose that for some reason it is desired to replace any or all of saidcatalytic material. For such purpose cover E and inner perforated disk Jare first removed the latter being lifted right through the opening of Dany units may then be individually removed without materially disturbingthe remaining units. Access to the lower system of plates p is obtainedby re-- moving all the units M which are supported by the centralperforated disk 0; said disk and the lower centrally perforated disk. Pthen both be lifted out at the top of the contact chamber. It will thenbe possible to successively lift through the openings thus established,each of the lower perforated plates 79 one after the other. The sectionsN would not require to be removed at all unless-possibly for the'purposeof recovering any catalytic material which may have fallen upon themwhile the above disassembling was going on. For purposes of repair or replacement sections N may also be lifted out through the head D whendesired while sections 0 of the top perforated plate are easily takenout by first removing said head I), the fastening means used to holdflanges a and 6 together being, of course, released for the purpose.

From the above it will be seen that repairs and replacements may thus bemade not only very conveniently but also with aminimum of expense asonly that particular piece of the apparatus requiring repair orreplacement need be handled or supplied. It is clear also that inapparatus of such large dimensions as our invention here described thereis also terial possible when the structural and functional parts arerelatively smalL- In starting up the apparatus, 1t 1S.fi1St a greateconomy of mav necessary to get rid of any moisture which out at B. Thisgradually heats up the contact chamber as a whole together wit-hcatalytic material contained therein and compels evaporation of anymoisture content;

when this is accomplished B- may be closed and the sulfurous acid gasand air led in at H, passed through the catalytic layers, and out at G.Of a given quantity of sulfurous acid gas and oxygen entering at H thegreater part of its conversion into emergent surfuric anhydrid will beefiected in the upper and thicker layer of catalytic material; the totalheat units due to the reaction will, of course, also be greatest in thistop layer. The purpose of the centrally perforated late P, between thetop layer and the stac of lower thin layers is to thor-. oughlycommingle the current of gas undergomg transformation inthe contactchamber and to equalize the temperature thereof after it has passed thetop layer; this is accomplished by requiring the total flow to convergetoward and contact so as to pass through the opening 0 on the under sideof which the gas flow will again spread out and distribute itself overthe entire surface of the stack of thin layers aforesaid. By spacing thetruncated funnel K away from the upper cylinder A (save at the uppercircle of contact where the former is supported by the latter) a jacketof substantially dead gas is provided which greatly aids the ordinaryheat insulating covering (not shown), with which we prefer to cover theoutside of the apparatus, in preventing, undue heat radiation from theupper cylinder into the surrounding atmosphere. As to the pyramidalunits M they also, besides their structural advantages have a veryimportant use in the heat economy of the apparatus inasmuch as they willconduct heat from within the mass of the upper layer Q of catalyticmaterial and radiate the same from the exposed tops of said pyramidsinto the entering gases. In the same way, said gases after having passedentirely through the top layer of catalytic material and having beenhighly heated by reason of the reaction there taking place, Wlll give upmuch of this excess heat to the plate L from which the pyramids willconduct it and, as before, radiate it into the entering gases above thetop layer Q.

Many changes of detail as e. 9., thenumher, size and shape of theseveral rforated of the thickness of the layers of catalytic material,

. and of other dimensions, may be made without affecting the spirit ofour invention which is embodied in the following claims.

We claim- 1. In a contact chamber, interposedin the path of the gasesbeing transformed, a layer of catalytic material having a relativelylarge superficial area, a layer of said material subsequent theretohaving a relatively smaller superficial area, and a centrally perforatedplate between said layers, as and for the purpose described.

2. In a contact chamber, interposed in the path of the gases beingtransformed, a relatively thick layer of catalytic material, a

plurality of relatively thin layers of said material subsequentthereto,and a centrally perforated plate between said thick layer and theplurality of thin layers, as and for the purpose described.

3. In a contact chamber, means comprising a plurality of identicalseparable elements adapted to support a layer of catalytic material,each of said elements including an upwardly and centrally taperedportion and a laterally extending portion, said laterally extendingportion belng provided with perforations as and for the purposedescribed.

4. In a contact chamber, a system of identical separable.units adaptedto support alayer of catalytic material, the said unit comprising anupwardly extending pyramid joined at its base to laterally extendingperforated flanges, as and for the purpose described.

5. In a contact chamber, a system of identical separable units adaptedto support a la er of catalytic material and a perforate plate adjacentto, but spaced from said system and adapted to support the same, as andfor the purpose described.

6. In a cont-act chamber having-a system of identical separable unitsadapted to support a layer of catalytic material, the combination ofsaid unit, which comprises an upwardy extending pyramid joined at itsbase to laterally extending perforated flanges provided with legs, witha perforated plate below but separated from said unit and adapted tosupport the same, as and for the purpose described. 7. A contact chamberprovided with an inlet and outlet and a support for a catalytic materialbetween sald inlet and outlet, said support being provided withprojections to'increase its radiating surface.

8. A contact chamber provided with an inlet and an outlet and a supportfor a catalytic material located between said inlet and outlet andprovided with projections of pyramidal form to increase its radiatingsurface,

9. A contact chamber provided with an inlet and an outlet and a supportfor a catalytic material located between said inlet and outlet andprovided with tapering projections to increase its radiating surface.

10. A contact chamber provided with an inlet and an outlet, and asupport for a catalytic material located between said inlet and outletand provided with projections extending toward the inlet.

In testimonj whereof we have hereunto 10 set our hands in the presenceof two subscribing Witnesses.

GEORG ESCHELLMANN. ALBERT HARMUTH.

Witnesses: p

H. A. Lovmenmn, E. FLEISHER.

